Repairing the Broken
by rebecca.topp99
Summary: Long before the Great Purge, someone, or something managed to take a selection of Dragon eggs and hide them in human form. Merlin found one of them and named her Aedith, together they wait for Arthur's return. But somewhere along the way, Merlin just can't wait any longer, and at that point Aedith fears Arthur's return might do more damage than good.


Disclaimer: The only character in this story I lay claim to is Aedith, everything else is Merlin.

I'm sorry if it's kinda lame or anything . . . I'm not extremely confident in what I'm doing, I'm not sure yet where I plan on going with this story really, other then Aedith being his loyal companion. This might even turn into a Merthur eventually for all I know... feedback is appreciated anyway.

...

**14th Century**

Merlin made the most impossible discovery, the centuries since Camlann number long forgotten. He had been searching for Aithusa, following any leads he could. One such lead, while standing in an open clearing, miles from the nearest village Merlin had the idea to attempt a summons. Merlin waited, barely daring to hope he would once again hear the sound of massive wings beating the air, none came, after some time he finally gave up and turned to leave. That's when he saw her, eyes gold with magic, hair a tangled mess with leaves and twigs, tattered little dress, covered in dirt from her face to her little bare feet.

"You called me here," she said rather indignantly, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to navigate through a forest this size?"  
Merlin stared at her, what on earth was happening? How did such a small child make it so far on her own, and in the night? And she was accusing him of calling her, all his little hairs were standing on end.

"How did you get out here? What is your name little one?" Merlin inquired, perhaps he'd misheard and she was lost, people were probably out searching for her. The girl's eyes still glowing bright gold in the dark, narrowed as she glared at him.  
"You spoke with your Dragonlord tongue, I heard you, so I answered." She said as she stood up straighter, chin raised with a defiant look on her face as she sized him up. Merlin stared in shock, eyes big as saucers at this point, what was he hearing?

"You . . . I don't understand," he said, "That call is meant for dragons . . . you're just a little girl, a little girl with very strong magic I can see that . . . but that doesn't explain how you could be out here . . . if you heard me, that means that you-"  
"I am a dragon," the girl interrupted.  
"How is that even possible? That's not possible is what that is, no way is it possible." She didn't say anything to that, just continued to stare at Merlin expectantly as he continued to ramble.  
"Who are you?" he asked suddenly, stopping in the middle of his pacing to look at her. The girl blinked at him, the gold had gone from her eyes and they were now a vibrant shade of green, and she now looked thoughtful.  
"I'm still an egg, so you have yet to give me a name."  
"But, how is that even possible!?" Merlin demanded, the girl shrugged then.  
"It was years before the great purge, someone or something turned a handful of dragon eggs into humans, they spread out and melted into the world, you're the first to ever find one." She answered pointing to herself, and interrupted him again before he could speak. "There's no point in asking who, or how, or whatever, that's the only thing I know."

Merlin studied her, hair still on end, his mind refusing to believe any of it, but everything about her told his instinct that she was speaking truth. There was one way to tell, Merlin walked toward her, as he did he began to speak in the dragon tongue, his heart pounding, and his breath left him as she did what she was told. She bowed before him, Merlin sank to his knees in front of her, reached a hand out, her eyes closed as his hand rested gently on her head. There was no doubt in that moment, the tears sprang to his eyes, he couldn't just feel the presence, he could see it, the dragon egg that was at her center.  
"It's just so impossible . . ." Merlin laughed shakily as the tears fell, and he pulled her into a hug. The girl didn't move at first, her eyes wide, a bemused look on her face, like she had no sort of experience in that kind of situation. Then her face softened, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and hugged him back tightly, soothed when her magic resonated with his.

"Wait, wait a minute . . . how old are you?" Merlin asked, he pulled her back, hands on her shoulders, and looked at her. "Are you one of the original eggs? Are more created each generation, or are you all like me?" The girl's face was quite blank.  
"You ask a lot of questions, I'm eight years old, I think I'm one of the originals, I don't know about the generation thing, and I don't know how to answer the last question."  
"What about your parents?" Merlin questioned, "They must have noticed you missing, I'm sure they're extremely worried."  
"I've never met them, I live with an old sorceress just outside of town."  
"What is your name?" Merlin asked again.  
"You still haven't named me yet," she sounded a little amused as well as a bit huffy at that.  
"Yes, but what does the woman call you? Does she know what you are?" The girl shook her head.  
"She doesn't know what, just that I'm special, she's heard of you though." Merlin got to his feet and took her hand.  
"Could you lead us back to the house?"  
"Yeah, ok . . ." she replied, she turned to lead him, "she calls me Addie, for my attitude."  
"Right."

They made their way through the trees, in the direction of the old woman's home, but misfortune had already struck. Addie stopped short, sniffed the air, Merlin could smell it too, the house was on fire. Addie ran forward, Merlin chased after her, calling for her to stop in dragon tongue before she could emerge from the safety of the trees. They dropped down and hid themselves within a bush as close as they could get to see, it wasn't just the house. The villagers had sentenced the old woman to a witch's trial, she was tied to the stake, they were still reading her rights. Merlin told Addie to stay, started to crawl forward, and was just to the tree when he heard the woman's voice.  
'_No, Emrys,_' Merlin stopped, and looked up to find the woman's eyes meeting his from across the distance, the people had not noticed.  
'_You're a Druid?_' he questioned with his mind, then shook his head. '_Please, I can help_ you.'  
'_No, you must take her and go, Emrys, I'm far too old, I would only slow you down._' Her voice was calm, '_All I ask is that you keep that girl of mine safe, get her away from here, I worked too hard to make certain they'd never find her._' Merlin looked back at Addie, he could see the tears, knew that she could hear the exchange.  
'_Addie, you must go with him, just be safe._' It was a heart breaking moment, Merlin looked back to the mass of people gathered around, could hear the stupidity of the village leader, oh he could certainly take them all, but that wouldn't help anyone. These people were frightened, and mislead by the church and old superstitions, Merlin thought of perhaps just tricking the way out of it.  
'_No, there just isn't anything else, they would wake up and give chase before you could get us both away fast_ _enough._' Not without using more magic at any rate, Merlin felt the guilt weigh in, but knew he had to listen to her. He turned back to Addie, tuning out as she and the woman silently bid each other good bye for the last time. Together, and quietly the two slipped away into the trees, as far from that place as they could until they were too tired to go any farther.

They found a small hollowed out area between the old roots of a large ancient tree, Addie pressed into Merlin's side, and he held her as she cried silently, no noise at all, save a few tiny sniffles until she fell asleep.  
Merlin looked down at her dirty, tear stained face, passed her features and into her core, concentrating on the egg, that moment was a good a time as any to give her a name and he was curious to know what would happen when she did receive it. He thought about it, really concentrated, for what seemed like an eternity, Merlin sat in thought, until the name came to him, tugging at the corners and pulling free.  
"Aedith," he whispered, the humming stopped, all sound cut out as if the world had suddenly come to a stand still. Addie's eyes snapped open, a molten gold, in a rush of power the wind rippled through the trees, and Merlin saw it, though physically she remained much the same. The egg had cracked, shells falling away to reveal the stunning little creature inside, her scales glinted the same goldish hue that reminded him very much of Kilgharrah. He couldn't help but wonder what the old dragon would have thought, if he'd known of her existence, of the existence of all of the hidden eggs.  
She looked up at him with those molten eyes, the magic still swirling around them, there was wonder in her eyes, as if she was seeing everything for the first time.  
"Say it again, my name." She said innocently, Merlin complied, a shudder ran through her and she asked him to repeat it again.  
"Aedith," she started to smile then. "I am Aedith, you have given me this name, thank you."

Merlin would do all he could to not make the same mistake he did with Aithusa, he would care for Aedith himself, raise her himself as best he could. He fell asleep with that thought, determined that he would make it work, thoughts of the world's current state and eventually fell into dreams of the day Arthur would come back. Everything would be ok if they could just hold on until then, Arthur would return and everything would be alright.


End file.
